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Saturday, 26 April 2014

When You Were Older is the moving tale of two brothers set
pre and post-9/11.

Russell Ammiano is living the dream in New York City. He has
a great job working for an advertising company in the Twin Towers. On the 11th
of September he is doing his best to get out of the door for an important work
meeting when the phone rings with news of his mother’s death. Soon after that,
he watches the planes crash into the Twin Towers, bringing destruction and
despair not just to the city, but to the world.

He hitchhikes his way to Kansas where he finds his mentally
disabled brother, Ben. Ben, a creature of habit, we learn is mentally disabled
because of an incident when he and Russell were teenagers. Their dad had taken
them out fishing, gotten drunk, and one thing led to another. Their dad drowned
and Ben transformed from a manipulative bully to a simple creature of habit,
who does not currently understand why his mother is not coming home.

Russell finds it very difficult adjusting to life in Kansas
when he tried so desperately to leave in the first place. Apparently he had not
been to Kansas in six years, leaving his mother to cope with Ben on her own.
The one bright spot in Russell’s life comes in the form of a young Egyptian
woman, Anat, who works in her father’s bakery. They try to start a relationship,
but issues of culture and faith brings a lot of strain, not to mention that the
bakery is being targeted by vandals in the wake of 9/11.

The story is well-paced and plotted, with regular flashbacks
to inform the reader about Ben, his and Russell’s relationships, and just why
Russell did not want to come back. The characters are well-fleshed out and
Catherine Ryan Hyde deals well with the sensitive issues she brings up;
culture, faith, disabilities, and facing everyday problems.

It was an enjoyable read with a nice, happy ending. It’s the
sort of book you can read easily in just a couple of sittings, but probably not
one that I feel compelled to take up again.